philips lighting create the livable...

Philips Lighting

Create the Livable CityA city.people.light engagement program for professionals in city development, landscape architecture and urban planning

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This article explains how the program works, and also gives examples of free-thinking design innovations produced by applying the program in fast-paced co-creative workshops all over Europe. It also highlights cities with forward-looking installations that are already pointing the way into lighting design futures.

Perhaps the best way to describe “Create the Livable City” is to highlight its multipurpose value, communicative power and communal nature. So far, the program has seen the gathering together of more than 150 architects, urban planners and theoretical thinkers in totally different settings. Its research base includes both interviews with leading architects and

scientifically-managed futures research as well as its unique workshops. The city.people.light methodology is currently the object of an independent PhD validating its foundation (University of Tilburg).

The outcome of Create the Livable City should not so much be regarded as a point of arrival but as the starting point for further elaborations, inspiration and the generation of ideas to conceive, design and build our “livable cities” in the years to come.

The heart of Create the Livable City lies in the Urban Futures matrix. This matrix combines four socio-cultural drivers with four possible city strategies, leading to 16 scenario “triggers”.

Lighting tomorrow’s citiesPhilips Lighting’s “Create the Livable City” is a city.people.light engagement program for professionals in city development, landscape architecture and urban planning with an open platform to discuss, explore and anticipate the future of European cities from socio-cultural and urban lighting perspectives.

2 I Create the Livable City

Socio-cultural drivers describe possible futures at macro-level, a sort of “helicopter view” of conceptual constructs of evolution within regional and global contexts. They have been tracked and studied for city.people.light since the mid 1990’s:

Identity: This driver envisions the future as a developing flow in time, where individual growth is enabled by self-expression of citizens. The accent is on individuals.

Exploration: Within ‘Exploration’, individual experiences are enabled and amplified by their beneficial impact on people’s lives. People’s freedom of choice results in increased customer sophistication.

Belonging: ‘Belonging’ focuses on how people will share and bond, both in real life as well as in virtual communities.

Sustainability: ‘Sustainability’ envisions future relationships of people with their planet, their societies and their fellow humans. Through the decades, ‘Sustainability’ has evolved from the notion of a green economy towards people’s wellbeing, human quality of life and public ethics.

City Strategies are universal parameters of possible approaches to urban design and development that represent how cities were organized in the past as well as anticipating the challenges of the future:

Acceleration: A strategy that supports an increasing speed of life and individual performance to enable

economic growth. The city of Singapore, in Asia, represents an example of this approach where an urban area generates socio-economic platforms for entrepreneurial development.

Memory: This strategy reconnects both citizens and cities to their historical, personal and symbolic past to generate emotional meaning. As an expert interviewee said: “Urban design linked to tradition in the specific context gives us the opportunity to build up a very good new way of living.”

Semiotics: This strategy addresses the iconic potential and impact of urban objects and city narratives. Cities generating and managing new signs - at best underpinned by storytelling - with the objective to appeal to citizens and visitors, fit with this strategy.

Connectivity: This strategy sees the city as a node in international networks; first and foremost a transportation, logistic and functional hub. Entertainment and green thinking has a potential role as enablers for the city to connect to everything that is outside.

Cross-referencing socio-cultural dynamic drivers (“how the future will evolve in the next 15 to 20 years”) with city strategies (“how cities can be systematically organized and managed over time”) resulted in 16 scenarios of urban futures development valid as reference for the next 5 to 10 years. These scenarios were used to drive the design workshops, generating feedback as well as innovative concepts from professional teams.

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Here cities will recreate spaces as a storytelling framework, with new objects underpinning memorable, meaningful stories. By means of an “acupunctural approach” of carefully selected structures the city can build memorable, meaningful and historically-rooted narratives that stick in people’s minds and will naturally circulate in culture, e.g. through social media.

Storytelling city

Monumental storytelling The city in time. This lighting concept coming from the Create the Livable City program reflects on Dubrovnik’s dynamic and challenging past, representing the passage of history through time. Lighting was used for its narrative power in three schemes to represent. First the development of Dubrovnik with a cultural richness comparable with Venice, secondly the destruction of the city followed by the liberating and rebuilding of the city.

We can already see some first “early signals” emerging of this future “storytelling” possibility; manifestations and examples that show how seeds of the “scenario thinking” about possible futures might be already present in the context of commercial projects, specifically when reviewing those advanced design programs and applications that represent the most forward-looking “high end” of urban lighting.


Rivers of Light Valladolid focused their storytelling on “Rivers of Light” that would create a spectacular route for tourists to highlight Valladolid’s history and beauty that strengthen the city’s identity. Aureolighting, a lighting design agency, developed the “Rivers of Light” concept. The name refers to the Esgueva River, which once ran through the old city.

The project would create a new “River of Light” where the Esgueva River once was, illuminating and connecting the spaces and monuments along the way. LED screens along the route provide information about these highlights. Rivers of Light transmits a message of memory and knowledge, of the flow of new ideas, thought and culture, involving growth and energy, life and movement, that connects with the people, both citizens of Valladolid and visitors alike. The Rivers of Light route

receives over 5,000 guided visits a year since it was launched in November 2011, while a further 10,000 people are estimated to have visited the attraction on their own accord. The city and local businesses profit from the increased number of visitors, supporting the local income growth and tourism each year.

More information you can read on our website:

http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/projects/rivers-of-light.wpd


Preserving historic center Another example of storytelling is the town of Rietberg in Germany. In the battle between preserving historic city centers and building out-of-town shopping centers, people are able to choose between the experiences of a stroll round the city or a boring trip to the shops to buy necessities. City centers can secure their futures and attract visitors by sharpening their unmistakable, evolved profile and emphasizing their special characteristics. In this sense the old city center of Rietberg has an image of exceptionally high quality, like few other cities of its size.

The elegant triad of historic streets and squares, precious building facades and the green, surrounding ring of water characterize the city’s image. These three elements are now bathed in an inviting, ecologically desirable LED light during the many hours of darkness, particularly between autumn and spring. The area of the LED lighting concept embraces the entire historic city center, as delimited by the Ems River and the course of the so-called diversion channel. This green ring is also the natural boundary of the historic nucleus of the origin of Rietberg.

The lighting scheme is a perfect example of master planning for a mid-sized city where citizens have been highly involved in the creative process, ensuring that their lives are improved. The regular, inclusive participation of the citizens has been consistently and consciously guaranteed by means of meetings and district discussions.

The new lighting concept in Rietberg means another step towards enhancing the quality of life for citizens and visitors in the historic city center. The illumination of prominent properties in the town center helps to create a special ambience in Rietberg and strengthens its identity by bringing forward the quality of historical architecture during night.


http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/projects/Casestudy_Historic%20center_Rietberg_Germany.wpd


This concept demonstrates how cities can transform past icons into cutting-edge contemporary experiences, both to stay relevant and to create meaning in the future. Many cities have been searching for their own vernacular aesthetics by “repurposing” their historic icons. European cities are already transforming churches from sacred sites into leisure and business uses. They are redesigning massive obsolete industrial complexes into sites for creative hubs. Urban regeneration is a key challenge to revitalize out-of-use places so they become part of urban everyday life again.

Beauty and a beast All the above considerations are valid when analyzing this “Create the Livable City” Wroclaw workshop concept.

Here, the repurposing of a former cultural center resulted in the final idea of a highly diversified multipurpose program, with daytime / daylight functions enabling socio-cultural integration by minorities or other culturally diversified citizens, combined with night-time / night-life function for nightclubbing and alternative lifestyles. This explains the selected naming: “Beauty and a beast”, combining the integrative social function with the dark glamour of underground lifestyles.

This “repurposing” possibility may be the strongest and most used of all. Urban regeneration projects have proved to be successful in the past years and will increase in importance. The role lighting can play as a tool to significantly contribute to the aim of the regeneration projects and related economic benefits is shown by the examples of Badajos and Newcastle.

Repurposed city


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Bastions of Light The Spanish city of Badajoz is a good example of repurposing. It has been guarding the frontier with Portugal for many years. Its many “bastions” reflect the days when Spain was not on such good terms with Portugal as it is today. Bastions of Light transforms Badajoz from a frontier town, prepared for war, into a town that welcomes people to places where they can meet friends and family and have a good time. It also contributes to the economical development of the city. The annual hotel occupancy

has already been improved by 6% and the annual money spent in the city increased by 360,000 Euro / year in 2012, compared with 2008 - an excellent result, considering the economical crisis and the fact that Badajos visitors are mostly from Spain. The old city of Badajoz now stands out for its versatility, its quality of life and its dynamic neighborhood lifestyle and extraordinary urban beauty.


http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/projects/Bastions-of-light.wpd



Toffee Factory Newcastle Corporation built the Victorian red brick complex that houses Toffee Factory in 1870. In the early 1900’s, its landmark chimney carried the Maynards logo, and it became home to the famous British sweet manufacturer, and a major employer of Newcastle workers. In the late 1950’s, Maynards abandoned the factory and it became derelict.

The project is the gateway project to a wider regeneration program for the area. Toffee Factory has begun a new life providing high quality, contemporary serviced office space for a range of digital and creative businesses. Toffee Factory is now a very attractive proposition, both by day and by night. It has its own quay on the banks of the Ouse Burn, and is only a few minutes’ walk from the city center and railway station. It currently houses 20-25 creative and digital businesses.


http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/projects/ toffee-factory.wpd

This scenario leverages the nature of physical space by generating coherent special clusters. How do we determine and feel what’s safe or dangerous. Spatial design creates that intuitive feeling. How do we experience the difference of a transit area versus a leisure area? How can lighting contribute to this spatial design, planning and architecture?

Emergence of a vernacular theme concept The Emergence of a vernacular theme concept, designed by the Wroclaw Poland workshop, introduced light into a tunnel connecting a square to the rest of the city through a tunnel. It created a colorful link by giving the area energy and dynamics. The pastel colors encouraged people to enter and interact with the space. In particular children were found playing in the beams of the subtly changing lights on the very same night the prototype was switched on.

Themed city



Urban development for carfree area Geneva provides an excellent example of urban development where three places have been connected by coherency, guided lighting to direct people to the different areas. The design succeeded in restoring the former pedestrian character to this space. The object, to transform a parking area and a traffic island with two fountains and a tree in its center into leisure areas, has not been easy to achieve. Loss of trade was feared by retailers. The new square is a vast free space - an area devoted to fun and leisure - as well as a meeting place for all generations. The lighting gives the square a warm, welcoming feel, and good asymmetric optical control prevents nuisance to neighboring façades. In addition, the bas-relief by the artist Paul Bianchi and the two stone fountains are illuminated from under the porch roofs. The temple is illuminated to display the building’s architecture.

The purpose behind the renovation of the three squares was primarily to improve the quality of life for the people of

Geneva, with opportunities for socializing and relaxation rather than simply to save money.


http://www.lighting.philips.com/ main/projects/casestudy_st_gervais_district_geneva_switzerland.wpd

This scenario uses architectural variety to bring our cities beyond the conventional “architecture of fear” that is predominant in standardized suburbia where buildings all look the same - and as if they were built a hundred years ago. People are increasingly looking for beauty through diversity, thanks to diffused leisure and tourism.

Divine Diversity The “Divine Diversity” lighting concept from the Glasgow workshop proposed an eclectic journey from the most playful, seductive and hidden side of an ideal city of light, to the ascension into a spiritual space for peace of mind. An ordinary doorway enabled this process of transition. One can immerse oneself in radical colors of red, blue and white light, chosen to amplify the dissonance of multiple lifestyles and countless architectural styles that make the city a unique organism at each moment in time. This might be the best “antivirus” treatment against the massively sanitized “architecture of fear” of homogenized suburbia.

Eclectic city


Beating heart of the region Examples are emerging that show how these possibilities are already being used in today’s eclectic cities. Like Hoogeveen in the Netherlands. The borough of Hoogeveen has approximately 55,000 inhabitants. The city council wants it to be an attractive borough for the residents and for the many tourists who visit. The historic buildings with their attractive façades, the large number of shops, the excellent cultural facilities and the stylish cascade, a stream which flows through the city center, are only a few examples of how Hoogeveen distinguishes itself from surrounding boroughs.

An urban architectural vision for the city center that includes a lighting master plan must ensure that Hoogeveen is also the beating heart of the region in the future. “The most important elements here are the return of water - a reminder of Hoogeveen’s watery

period. The square and the harbor wall acquire an almost fairylike quality in the evenings thanks to the projections of leaves and waves. The historic façades are now shown off to their best at night as well as during the day.


http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/projects/Hoogeveen.wpd

The Create the Livable City book which features expert opinions on trends, lighting concepts and prototyped installations is available in architectural bookshops and on amazon.com.

We would like to thank all architects and urban planners for their contribution in our workshops enabling us to realize the Create the Livable City book.

Check our website for more information:

www.philips.com/citypeoplelight


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© 2014 Koninklijke Philips N.V. All rights reserved. Philips reserves the right to make changes in specifications and/or to discontinue any product at any time without notice or obligation and will not be liable for any consequences resulting from the use of this publication.

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